Mice!!!

[mom0810]

I've read all of the old posts about this, but I guess I am really scared and wanted some reassurance.

I found some "evidence" of mice on Sunday, and I wetted it down with Clorox Clean UP (I know, this stuff is nasty but it's also STRONG), and then cleaned it up. But the area where the droppings were was right by an air vent and I am terrified that I somehow came into contact with Hantavirus! I can't stop thinking about it. I have OCD...

The exterminator came and told us in our area (Illinois) that this is not a concern, and that there have only ever been two cases in Illinois... one was a guy's house that was infested... I mean mice everywhere, even in the light of day, and one was a greenhouse worker. That made me feel a little better, but I am still really scared. There were maybe... 20? droppings and I wetted them down but what if I did not wet them down enough??? I am really freaking out.

I know there is not much I can do about this, but is there anyone out there who can just offer some support? Has anyone else been there with mice in the house? I am just really scared.

The exterminator put poison in the ceiling in the basement and the crawlspace, and we haven't seen any evidence since then. I am so freaked out. I have a headache today (probably from gritting my teeth all night) but I am so worried that it is the beginning of disease!!! :

Has anyone here gone through this? I'm sorry if it offends anyone that we poisoned the mice, but I have a 14 month old and I have no qualms about killing something that has even the most remote possibility of doing harm to my family.

Thanks!

[Meiri]

RElax about Hanta, it's not very common. The guy has no reason to not speak truth to you about it, particularly as, when you think about it, doing the opposite is what could get him more business.

My only concern with using poison, and we've gone that route lately too after a trap was dragged off, is that the mice then seek water and may end up dying in odd places in the house. I guess usually they try to get outside?

Ask your exterminator how you might prevent that issue, maybe with a pan of water in a clear spot of the basement from which your DH (making a presumption, I know) or some helpful person could remove them?

[wallacesmum]

We have mice on the counters all the time. That's life in an old farm house. No problems so far. We dust them up and wipe down with vinegar. The cats are pretty useless, if you ask me!

About poison, last spring in a fit of desparation before ds was born, we spread d-con around the basement. We had an infestation (rats too) because of a disgusting abandoned trailer in the area (gone now). So, anyway, rat died in wall, kitchen smelled so foul that we had to eat outside for weeks! I am not exaggerating here. I do not recommend poison. I recommend steel wool and triple-expanding foam, which they eventually chew through but not too fast. I have also heard they hate copper wire or wool, and won't chew it.

[kaydee]

I lived in an infested rental house for a while and am still here, living to tell, and still advocating nonlethal methods of dealing with the critters.

[tessamami]

I've got some suggestions

Live spring traps, this is gross but effective. Put a little peanut butter on the mechanism, or not. If you ever see a mouse, try to follow it to see where it goes, it usually takes the same paths, and put the traps there. DH flushes them down the toilet.

Used to have a wonderful cat who'd chase them, we'd trap them under a small trash bucket, put some stiff cardboard under them, and flush them. Once, my cat left me a dead mouse present. In addition to being a great mouser, she was a real lover kitty.

The cat died last year, and we saw a mouse a week later. We put a trap where we saw one run, and caught it in the middle of the night, but couldn't find the trap. It had dragged the trap 6 feet, under the radiator near a window. DH found it, flushed it, then took off the radiator cover. There was a nest, YUCK! Nothing in it, and he saw there was a hole actually leading to the firescape. He filled it with steel wool, I think and some spray foam. The spray foam was used wherever we found a mouse hole, and near our other radiator, too.

Just because you see a mouse during the day DOES NOT mean that you are infested. They typically scout for food every few hours, and you'll probably see one around twilight.

I heard that they don't like peppermint oil, but it didn't seem to bother my mice. We had a mouse hole under our BED! We found out after DH had plugged up the other holes. . . . it was evening and we heard the mouse, and it ran back under our bed! DH filled the hole in the morning, and we haven't seen one since.

I went nuts keeping all food under wraps, crumbs picked up, etc. Mice don't need very much food or very much water to live, at all.

[wallacesmum]

Yeah, there is no fighting them with cleanliness, I don't think. They come out just to lick oil off a jar (yuck) or drink from the water collected in the drain. We use the regular spring traps, too, and just empty them into the trash. They are pretty effective.